Getting a teenager of the opposite sex to watch your teenagers while you're gone..I'm surprised the one doing the hiring wasn't charged with aiding and abetting.That's almost like getting pussy delivery service.

My 14 yr old has just split up with his 16 yr old gf - they'd been dating for about six months. She's a very nice girl, but I did think it a bit weird. Although he's a great kid, I couldn't understand the attraction for her; when I was 16 [aeons ago], I wasn't ever interested in boys younger than me.

ACunningPlan:My 14 yr old has just split up with his 16 yr old gf - they'd been dating for about six months. She's a very nice girl, but I did think it a bit weird. Although he's a great kid, I couldn't understand the attraction for her; when I was 16 [aeons ago], I wasn't ever interested in boys younger than me.

Having been a 14 year old boy once, LONG ago, I gotta agree. Boys aren't very clean, they aren't very smart, and they speak in grunts.

In 100 years, people will look back on the gaiety issue and ask, "What was the problem?" Then they'll look at cases like this and ask the same.

Why? Because society won't be traumatizing, shaming, and stigmatizing teens who have consensual sex with adults in order to convict the adults. The idea that a teen can't consent just because of age will be ridiculed like the idea that gay sex is an abomination in the eyes of the sky-wizard. The mere fact that an adult has sex with a teen won't automatically make the adult a horrible person.

There will still be laws against sexual conduct with a vulnerable person of any age; knowingly putting someone at risk of an STD at any age; perhaps even laws against failing to use contraception when it should have been used.

BarkingUnicorn:In 100 years, people will look back on the gaiety issue and ask, "What was the problem?" Then they'll look at cases like this and ask the same.

Why? Because society won't be traumatizing, shaming, and stigmatizing teens who have consensual sex with adults in order to convict the adults. The idea that a teen can't consent just because of age will be ridiculed like the idea that gay sex is an abomination in the eyes of the sky-wizard. The mere fact that an adult has sex with a teen won't automatically make the adult a horrible person.

There will still be laws against sexual conduct with a vulnerable person of any age; knowingly putting someone at risk of an STD at any age; perhaps even laws against failing to use contraception when it should have been used.

Justice evolves to become more just and more difficult to discern.

2113 could be another medieval-like era, but with advanced technology.

BarkingUnicorn:stewbert: I think the story is missing some key details. Any 14 yo who needs a babysitter is probably mentally challenged. That changes the story from "teenage fantasy" to "pretty creepy".

zvoidx:BarkingUnicorn: In 100 years, people will look back on the gaiety issue and ask, "What was the problem?" Then they'll look at cases like this and ask the same.

Why? Because society won't be traumatizing, shaming, and stigmatizing teens who have consensual sex with adults in order to convict the adults. The idea that a teen can't consent just because of age will be ridiculed like the idea that gay sex is an abomination in the eyes of the sky-wizard. The mere fact that an adult has sex with a teen won't automatically make the adult a horrible person.

There will still be laws against sexual conduct with a vulnerable person of any age; knowingly putting someone at risk of an STD at any age; perhaps even laws against failing to use contraception when it should have been used.

Justice evolves to become more just and more difficult to discern.

2113 could be another medieval-like era, but with advanced technology.

I think this would have been legal in medieval times and nobody would have raised an eyebrow. Could be wrong.

BarkingUnicorn:stewbert: I think the story is missing some key details. Any 14 yo who needs a babysitter is probably mentally challenged. That changes the story from "teenage fantasy" to "pretty creepy".

Or he has mentally challenged parents.

"But mom, I can't stay home alone, what if I burn the house down, or some one tries to break in? I'm so afraid to be alone, call Loni, she always takes such good care of me."

I'm not 100% sure, but in parts of the UK the age of consent in those days was when a girl reached puberty. However if she was ravaged of her maidenhood or some such act against her will, the chap had to pay a fine [possibly to her parents]. Of course, she was basically considered property; so yes whilst she could have had sex willingly with an older guy, she also could have been married off to some creepy paedo w/o any say in the matter at all.

stewbert:I think the story is missing some key details. Any 14 yo who needs a babysitter is probably mentally challenged. That changes the story from "teenage fantasy" to "pretty creepy".

Hm. Well, I guess it depends on the situation - my parents traveled a fair bit when I was in high school and they hired an adult to say at the house - even though I was 16, with a 13 year old sister, there was more than I needed to do with school and part time job. These were not overnights, but weeks to a month at a time. Never seemed strange to me.

The Voice of Doom:Babysitters for 14 year-olds?That's old enough to be the babysitter.

Getting a teenager of the opposite sex to watch your teenagers while you're gone..I'm surprised the one doing the hiring wasn't charged with aiding and abetting.That's almost like getting pussy delivery service.

That's exactly what I thought when I read TFA. "Here, son, we're going out for the evening. Your entertainment will be here soon."

BarkingUnicorn:In 100 years, people will look back on the gaiety issue and ask, "What was the problem?" Then they'll look at cases like this and ask the same.

Why? Because society won't be traumatizing, shaming, and stigmatizing teens who have consensual sex with adults in order to convict the adults. The idea that a teen can't consent just because of age will be ridiculed like the idea that gay sex is an abomination in the eyes of the sky-wizard. The mere fact that an adult has sex with a teen won't automatically make the adult a horrible person.

Unlikely. How do you codify that into law? If you're not using age as the guide to consent, then what are you using? If you're going to issue some sort of test of competence, then how is the perpetrator supposed to know what the results of that test would be beforehand?

Age is hardly an ideal litmus test... it just happens to be the best we have.

BarkingUnicorn:In 100 years, people will look back on the gaiety issue and ask, "What was the problem?" Then they'll look at cases like this and ask the same.

Why? Because society won't be traumatizing, shaming, and stigmatizing teens who have consensual sex with adults in order to convict the adults. The idea that a teen can't consent just because of age will be ridiculed like the idea that gay sex is an abomination in the eyes of the sky-wizard. The mere fact that an adult has sex with a teen won't automatically make the adult a horrible person.

There will still be laws against sexual conduct with a vulnerable person of any age; knowingly putting someone at risk of an STD at any age; perhaps even laws against failing to use contraception when it should have been used.

Justice evolves to become more just and more difficult to discern.

Newsletter?

I feel much the same. It's all very silly most of the time. Except it ruins peoples lives for no good reason*.

Speaking as someone who actually did have sex with a 19 year old babysitter when I was 15, I'm going with subby's interpretation of events. Best babysitter ever, though I suspect the neighbors that hired her to watch their kids would have been a bit more disappointed in her performance than I was.

Now that I'm older it occurs to me that something must have been wrong with that girl, but man, it was the very best kind of wrong.

/got busted because I left a bottle of Strawberry Hill on their back porch//dammit///they never hired her again

ACunningPlan:My 14 yr old has just split up with his 16 yr old gf - they'd been dating for about six months. She's a very nice girl, but I did think it a bit weird. Although he's a great kid, I couldn't understand the attraction for her; when I was 16 [aeons ago], I wasn't ever interested in boys younger than me.

There's definately less of a stigma now. I remember reading an article about an increasing number of teenage girls who prefer to go to prom with younger boys, being refered to by the media and their peers as "teenage cougars." It probably helps that Some of todays popular young female celebs are known to date younger guys. (Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Etc.)

ACunningPlan:My 14 yr old has just split up with his 16 yr old gf - they'd been dating for about six months. She's a very nice girl, but I did think it a bit weird. Although he's a great kid, I couldn't understand the attraction for her; when I was 16 [aeons ago], I wasn't ever interested in boys younger than me.

Apparently this is a thing. Teenage girls are finding younger boys better behaved that boys their own age, or something like that.